Page 24 of Lesson In Forgiveness

As he reached for his jacket, he hesitated. Suspicion crept into his bones; his room had been unoccupied all day, and he was aware how sneaky Tabitha was when slipping into hotel rooms without detection.

What were the odds she’d performed her breaking and entering act while he’d been out?

Zero, he concluded, after a thorough search of the bedroom, bathroom, and every nook, cranny, and storage space he could find.

Wherever Tabitha was, it wasn’t here.

Locking the door securely behind him, he walked down the hall to tap on Elias’s door. When it cracked open, he blinked once in surprise as Callie peeked through the gap.

Laughter lit her eyes, mischief all over her pretty face. She was in full Little mode. “Hi, Rory!”

He wondered how fired he’d be if he strangled one of her Daddies. Evander was likely the culprit; he seemed to enjoy annoying Grit by calling him by his real name, and now Callie was playing the same game. “Hey, Callie. Is Elias there?”

Mischief morphed into pure devilment. “Maybe…”

“Could you get him for me?”

Giggling, she yelled, “Daaaddeeee!”

Christ, she had a pair of lungs on her. The girl could sit on top of a cop car and act as the siren in an emergency.

“Little one, what have I told you about answering the door?” Elias’s accent was thick with stern British disapproval. “Evander’s in his office; go find him and tell him you’re getting twenty for disobeying an order, yet again.”

“Daddy’s cranky after a nap,” she muttered, then broke out in giggles again.

The door swung wide open this time, and Grit struggled not to break out in laughter himself. He lasted all of ten seconds before a chuckle rumbled in his chest.

“Everything okay, Grit?”

The chuckle escalated quickly when Elias’s brows drew together in a frown. The stick figures scrawled over his face in black and red ink looked pretty damn permanent. “Uh, yeah. Just wanted to let you know I’m heading out for an hour.”

Wariness flashed in Eli’s eyes. “Has something happened?”

“Nothing that involves you. Still, I’m here to make sure it stays that way.” Grit smirked, lifting his hand to gesture a circle around Eli’s face. “It seems I’m too late; there’s a traitor in your midst.”

“What?” Perturbed, he took a step back, turning to glance at the hallway mirror. With a truly amusing double take, he faced the mirror fully. “That little… Callie!”

“I’ll, uh, leave you to it. Don’t forget to lock the door,” Grit suggested, letting his laugh erupt in full force as he walked away, hearing Eli bellow his wife’s name again as the door slammed shut.

That right there was reason numero uno why he steered clear of getting involved with Littles. They were adorable, sure, and some of them—Sierra, for example—were shy and unassuming. Others—like Atticus’s Alicia, and Callie—possessed those traits and about a thousand more which were full of sass, brattitude, and troublemaking.

Only a brat could get away with doodling on her Daddy’s face with… hell, had it been permanent ink? Felt tip?

Someone was going to get a lot more than twenty swats for that stunt.

Tabitha wasn’t a Little. He’d confidently bet a month’s paycheck on it. Her sense of independence was too finely honed, her instincts too keen to balance killing with regressing.

Grit pondered on that as he summoned the elevator. Jasper and Tabitha’s sister—half-sister—was a victim of Dominic’s too. Caera displayed a lot of Little tendencies, many of which hadn’t come to light until she met Saul and felt safe enough to expose herself so fully.

Stepping into the car when the doors opened, he frowned. Tabitha’s career was an unorthodox one. She was in a position not many women found themselves in, being able to protect herself to unbelievable standards, disabling men three times her size with ease.

But did she ever feel safe?

Did she have somewhere that gave her a sense of belonging, comfort, peace?

It was none of his business, he reminded himself. Pulling out his phone, he Googled kink stores in the local area, attempting to distract his thoughts from uneasy notions. He was tasked with capturing her, locking her down until he could get her ass into a seat on a plane and back to Arizona.

By the time he reached the hotel lobby, he’d located a store a few blocks away, and he was still thinking about Tabitha.

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